UKC

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fit club is a rich community with posters sharing their goals, noting successes and failures and offering support to those struggling to maintain motivation. Anyone interested in starting is very welcome to join, but to get the most of UKC fit club you should aim to post each week, every week, however little or much you have done. By making such a regular public record of your activities and by restating your goals every week this new habit will hopefully improve your training habits and drive you towards achieving your goals whatever the level of your chosen activity.

The following training article by Alex Barrows gives an excellent breakdown on training the four main "energy systems" specific to climbing:- http://alexbarrowsclimbing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/training-for-sport-climbi...

For those wanting to find out more about training for climbing a number of physical training articles are linked here:- http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=274502

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_701-7238...

Psyche vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9afurQzAfAg&

biscuit - Welcome back!!!  Great to see you.  Well done on the diet effort.  f7B, is well good.  Lots of nice numbers there, 7bs and th elike.  Very impressive.

the sheep - WWOOOOO 1000km!!!  Nice one.  Glad to hear the GCSEs went well.

Tom Green - Hope you're better now?  An ok week bearing in mind you were coming down with the lurgy.

Si dH -  Reasonable week.  The f7C sounds nice.  Looks like a nice crag from the photos.  I can sympahtise with the sleep.

AJM - Hope Mini is ok now?  Glad the CPD is done.  Sounds like it was just one of those weeks.  Hope you got out this week?

Somerset swede basher - YYFY!  f8A!!!  Really great.  That's excellent.  Hope the finger is recovering?

AlanLittle - Decent sessions as always.  How are you finding the lattice sessions.  Altmühltal sounds interesting.  Glad you enjoyed it.

Ally Smith - Solid training there.  Loving the 'hour of power'.  Glad to hear the finger is coming along ok.

miso - Glad to hear the motivation is back.  Hope the taper goes well.  Sancturary 50k looks fun.  Good luck, I assume it's soon?

mattrm - Eat less fatty.  Well done on walking up a hill.  Try for more, yeh muppet.

Rebecca - Are any campus sessions fun?

Bones - Sorry, I didn't get caught up with them, I'll leave you all to report if you want to.  Well done on the runs and walks, you're doing great.

Thanks again Matt. Bit of a strange and stressful week here, I was very tired in the evenings for much of the week and have then been housebound at the weekend, but have got two good sessions done on the board.

M: Did a short one arm max hang session on the Beastmaker 20mm edge. Taking 9 kg off for 7 seconds, 3 hangs each arm. Also a 10mm edge hang.

T: rest

W: rest

T: Did a short board session in the afternoon. Put up a new 6c+ ish thing. Sol pointed at one of the starting holds and proclaimed it was "called piece of piss." Hmm. He was very pleased with himself.

F: rest

S: board session in the afternoon. Felt better than earlier in the week. Repeated a couple of the 6c+s then set three new 7a/+s to try. Did all moves on them all except for one that has a really hard start. 

S: max hangs on the fingerboard again, plus a hang on the 10mm edge, followed by another board session this afternoon. This was quite a good session, I spent it trying to do the mirror images of all the problems I have previously done on the board under 7a. I managed all but two, one of which I have now upgraded (must have been going well when I set it!) and another that I was just a bit too tired on and felt at risk of tweaking a tendon on, so stopped. I've got enough things set at 6c/+ on my board now that it becomes feasible to do a bit more of a volume session rather than just working something with big rests. Although I still need some decent rests as it's all very physical, especially on the shoulders.

On three (I think) occasions I also did 3 X10 reps of TRX hamstring curls. Want to build a bit more strength in them for heel hook purposes. Nothing major but I suspect they have suffered from being unused while not doing any of that sort of climbing for months.

I measured my micro edges earlier in the week. Each of them is actually about a mm less than advertised (is 9/7/5 rather than 10/8/6) and they also have a slightly rounded edge. No wonder hanging bodyweight on the 10mm edge feels desperate! I've managed it for 8-10 seconds once but on other attempts have dropped off after 5-7 seconds as my fingers felt like they were about to explode...

On a positive note I feel like I'm gradually getting stronger. I felt fairly good on the max hangs today and some of the 6c+s on the board definitely feel easier now than when I first set them (noting that I was doing the mirror images so didn't have any muscle memory to help.) I flashed a couple of them today.

Second positive note is that Sol has started enjoying climbing on the wall I built for him for the first time this week and I've had to move the holds around as he wanted to go higher

Si

Thanks Matt. The lattice sessions feel like they should be doing something, but given that I'm not willing to sacrifice real climbing at the weekends, a fear just a session or two a week will be of limited benefit.

STG: Sport: 7a redpoint, hopefully reducing the large & growing collection of projects. Added to it instead this week.
      Trad: I haven't completely abandoned hope of getting something done in the Dolomites this summer subject to there being a weekend of appropriate local conditions (thunderstorms, covid etc). I pretty much have abandoned the idea now for this year. 
MTG: Autumn Kalymnos trip. Do a beginner ski tour in spring 2021
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Rest day. 

T: Wall, Weyarn. Six weeks to Kaly, time to start phasing in some harder power endurance. I am utterly confused as to what "aeropow" really is, but since the lattice/crimpd "Capacity Power" workout is "to increase power endurance on medium to long length sustained routes" it seemed obvious that I should do it. So I did.

W: Bike one hour

T: Moonboard. First post-lockdown session; about as dismal as expected.
F: 
S: Frankenjura. First time there in this strange year; got on a 6c+/7a I'd been wanting to have a look at for a while. Really good climbing with a very intricate sequence on small pockets: unfortunately the upward curve of sequence knowledge and the downward curve of power & skin crossed over too soon. Another one added to my not-diminishing list of projects.

S: Wall, Thalkirchen. Once again, the attempt to do an  endurance day after a power day falls completely flat on its face. The actually valuable part of the session was probably the half an hour of core work on the rings that i did after I decided to can the climbing. 
    I hope by the time I get to Kalymnos I'll be able to try reasonably hard for more than one day at a time. And if not, there are plenty of good easy routes there that I can do mileage days on.

Given that my Sunday session after projecting hard on Saturday was a complete non-starter, and I have an A4 pulley feeling a bit tweaky too, I think I probably have a bit of deload week coming up.

I've heard the exact dimensions & radius of the beastmaker crimps can be disappointingly variable. I once managed eight seconds at bodyweight on the 10mm  - probably  an unusually thick & square one.  That was in one of those weird sessions where everything somehow went right and I set multiple fingerboard pb's, but if I'm not absolutely fresh & perfect conditions usually I can barely hold them.

I suspect at that size the usual tolerances are more significant.

For what it's worth mine aren't beastmakers. I follow a bunch of small outfits on Instagram that started up during lockdown to make wooden holds in the UK and have been trying to buy something for my board or training set up from each of them. These were from Buzz climbing. The sizes are internally consistent and the holds are very nice so it wouldn't put me off using them again... I suspect they were cut to measure before final sanding or something though.

I always thought of aerocap as a way to build up a way to build up an aerobic inherent capability and aeropow as a way to then make sure you can actually use it. (I understand ancap and anpow to be similarly related.) In the simplest sense, aeropow training involves getting mind blowingly pumped, as much as possible.

Lattice do a useful diagram for the Instagram generation, if you haven't seen it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEGfCg7DbkK/?igshid=4a1o55jwpus2

It's a bit more digestible than the old Barrows pdf

I had a lot of success with aeropow training (specifically, 3-4 weeks of regular foot on campusing to failure) in 2016 which made a big difference on the two hardest routes I have done. For context I had good strength and good anaerobic ability from doing lots of boulder traverses, but it had been 18 months since I had done any aerobic work before that. I might have had a reasonable aerobic base from years learning to climb on trad I guess. But anyway, if you are currently struggling with getting pumped quickly on routes then it certainly could be a help.

Edit to add that during that 3-4 week period, I did nothing else - just FoC aeropow. The weather was crap at the time anyway. I then stopped aeropow and went back to one session per week of max hangs to maintain finger strength whilst I was trying project routes at the weekends. No idea if this is the ideal approach, but it seemed to work.

Cheers Matt, after a big week last week this one was a bit flat. I’m a bugger for losing motivation when I have hit a goal or completed an event I have trained hard for. That combined with the crap weather did for any real training this week. 

Did a 4km run on Thursday evening as part a parents vs kids race and went open water swimming with the eldest on Sunday. Did roughly 1.5km, but my god the water temperature has dropped. Proper face tingling stuff. No need for an ice bath recovery

Attempting a return to fitclub - 

Last week

Going into surgery on the 7th of Sept to have the various bits of metalwork removed from my leg. Hoping that this will make a big difference to my ability to cover the distances needed for Scottish Winter and mountain trad, but we'll see.

As I'm in isolation due to the COVID rules around hospital attendance, I'm mostly trying to work on physio for my never-ending shoulder problems.

Alternating days - 

Day 1. Exercise band "sword pulls", Single arm Kettlebell snatch (8kg)

Day 2. Shoulder Rotational exercises with a dumbell (5kg)

Next week

• Continue with Physio
• Add Pullup/Pushups/Core
• Some hangboarding

MTG

Depends how surgery goes, and what my recovery period will be like (think it'll realistically be at least 4 weeks before I'm out climbing again). Maybe some Winter sun somewhere if I'm up to it.

Cheers Matt, grateful as always. This week I have been mostly avoiding pulling hard on small holds! 

Mon. 5km run @ 5min/km

Tues. 3x10 shoulder shrugs, 5x5 on the min pull ups, 3x10 press ups and 3x1min planks. 

Wed. 17km on the mtb. Actually a really nice ride. Did a couple of laps of the lady Cannings trails then down houndkirk and back up through Burbage now it's open to bikes. 

Thurs. 25km on the bike round Bradfield way. 

Fri. Went to the wall for the first time since last winter. 15mins of V1 to V3 problems to warm up then hit 2 of my weaknesses: power and compression. Did some campussing but on the big rungs as not to agrivate my poorly finger. 4x13579, 2x125, 2x145, 2x14almost 6, 2x13almost6. I can't quite hit rung 6 so end up using the intermediate half rung then going again for the last ones. Goal is to be able to do 136 and 146 on the big rungs. Did crimpd compression on the rings after but had to have the rings quite high and my feet pretty close to be able to complete the T and Y as I find these really hard. I find the low rows quite easy though so I did those as low archer rows instead. 3x10 press ups to finish.

Sat. Rest. 

Sun. Went to  Aldery Cliff for what turned into quite a long trad session. My partner was keen for rock in the sun but can't lead at the mo as is waiting a hospital visit and needs to take care. This meant I got to be on the sharp end all day! I lead 4 E1s, 2 E2s and 2 E3s. All nice routes on good rock. Finger didn't grumble too much but probably didn't do a move harder than V3 all day and it was mostly slabby stuff. 

What does FoC stand for? Sorry if it's something really obvious! 

Feet on Campusing

I assume. Better to be sure what the magic training method is though before I start doing it.

Cheers. That had crossed my mind but I though Id seen it before used in a finger board session. Though I guess you could fingerboard for stamina with your feet on if you have either a really high boredom threshold or a well positioned TV! 

FoC = foot on campus.

My method was actually just to go up and down between the bottom 2 crimps and top two crimps (big flatties) on a bm2000, with my feet on a chair out in front of me. When fresh I could manage about 3 minutes at a time. The reason it's effective (if it's what you need) is that each individual hand move is very easy and there is no possibility of falling off due to messing up your technique or getting a tired core, so you can push on into the pump much further than if you are doing, say, circuits.

Thanks Matt. Yes he was fine by Tuesday thankfully. Might do one more bit of CPD tonight to get a little further beyond the minimum but all done.

The week itself was basically a disaster. I don’t think I did any training. My wife took the kids off to my in-laws on Wednesday because despite the plastering not going ahead they obviously wanted to see each other, and somehow I used my freedom not to train hard but to work way more hours than is reasonably justifiable and wipe myself out. It was rubbish. Got some nice thank yous and all that but still.

The weekend was better.

Saturday - drove to Berry Head. There was a north wind blowing and a mix of sunshine and cloud. When it was windy and cloudy it felt rather cold. I wasn’t really 100% on it, still a bit wiped out from the week. Felt a bit spooked high up as well. Did a nice warmup, then got scared, then had a decent go on Cod Tympani (7a S1), then went round and did Cavewoman (6c). Biceps started cramping on the latter which foiled any further attempts on White Rhino Tea and in general my shoulders felt pretty worked, lots of wide positions as a result of sideways shuffling I think.

Sunday - Combeshead. Glorious day out. Cold to start with a cold breeze but lovely sunshine. Did some really wonderful easy problems, really high quality beautiful stuff (Sharp Arête (f5+), No match for climb id:36611, Hanging Flakes (f6B)), and spent a while on the very descriptive Dyno from Undercuts (f7A), which is a 7A that broadly speaking does what it says. I got pretty close, hit the top of the jug needed a couple more inches to get my hand down the back of it and I’d have had it.

Monday - Saddle Tor. Despite my skin being in pieces I repeated the E1 microbouldersolo thing on the left and had a few goes on Dancing Queen (f7B) - got back to my high point,, ruled out a potential line of enquiry over foot beta but didn’t make any further progress before my skin totally went.

Feeling a lot more in balance after a good weekend away. Hoping to catch the high tide on Portland for what’s probably my last DWS of the season this weekend.

Cheers Matt. I feel like i'm ticking along but i need to kick on now.

Got a Costa Blanca trip booked for Xmas (COVID permitting). I am hopeless at sticking to my own training plans so i've booked a Lattice Lite plan to start towards the end of September. It'll hold me to account better and help with my discipline.

M - Still doing family stuff so no climbing

T - Shoulders and BFRT elbows prehab

W - Awesome Walls Stockport after work - 20 problems up to V5. 2 routes both 7a onsight

T - Rainy day and couldn't face trying to fight against marginal conditions so we went to the wall. I felt tired so had an easyish session of 16 boulders up to about V5.

F - BFRT elbows and a late night

S - Tired. First trad of the year. Damp multi-pitch VS's. Fun day.

S - Big walk, no climbing but i did my Lattice testing

Body weight 69kgs.

I seem to have put a kilo or two on since I stopped monitoring my intake. A full weekend family birthday of buffets and cake and then a different birthday with BBQ, more cake and chocolate hasn't helped.

Max hangs + 45kgs = 165%

2RM Pull ups +28kgs = 141%

Power endurance (-1kg) = 155 seconds

I think my fingers are OK for my goal. I was climbing today and tried a couple of bouldery, fingery, routes. If i can reach a hold i can hold it. Moving off it is the issue. I think i need some more burl and fitness.

That's super strong if you were half crimping a 20mm edge

Yes thanks. 45 kg was as much weight as we had so i'm glad that was my max. 

Half crimp on the bm1000 with batteries in the big slots and no nestling allowed!

I don't find it crosses over all that well to truly small edges outside though. 

Impressive max hangs, I max out at +35kg and I'm 3kg lighter to start with! 

I feel I can hold most things I come across. Moving off them is the issue I have. 
 

Have you guys ever tested the 2rm pull up? I’ve no idea where my score puts me. 
But having said that I also don’t feel it correlates that well with climbing where the feet are attached to the wall. 

I haven't done any pull ups for a while and never properly tested it on a bar but found in the past that I could do 2 reps on an edge with about the same weight that I could deadhang with for 10 seconds. That was 30-35kg in the bm2000 pockets with an AA battery. My old fingerboard before moving house didn't allow me to properly pull up above it before my head hit the roof, so they were slightly short pull ups.

I suspect I'd be weaker than that currently. 

I am similar. I put it down to doing a lot of boulder traverses but relatively few up problems so I'm comparatively less good at upwards motion.

In terms of pull ups, I think my 2rep max used to be about +20kg but I've not tested for ages so it might be lower now. I tend to do very little 'training' over the summer and just concentrate on getting out lots, trying hard and moving well on rock. I save training for winter and pandemics. I'd probably climb harder if I trained more during the summer but I'd rather enjoy being outside and if that means I pull a little less hard than I could do I'm ok with that.

Thanks guys. Good info.

I trained over lockdown but found I couldn’t do both climbing and training once we got let out. So I’ve just been getting out roughly 3 times a week, which has been lovely.

i think I may not be allowing myself to pull as hard as I can. There’s ‘something’ missing in the chain somewhere. I can usually spot these things in other people but it’s hard to coach myself.

I do feel there’s a mismatch between my fingers and my ability to use my body to move between holds. Not sure if it’s burl or technique. Time will tell I guess. 

Thanks again stat-Matt :-D

Week 35: 

M – Cave of Justice. Felt strong warming up, but a quick play on Louis Knee-strong showed finger twang was not fixed. Set about re-working (G)Rimage instead. 3x30min blocks with 10min rest in between. Eventually sorted everything and did a long link from the start of HH to finish jugs. I thought this section to be 7C-ish, but I might have had my grading skewed by the Moonboard as I then went on to quickly repeat well-wired 7C and 7C+’s during my “warm-down”. 

T – Weights. Warm-up sets, then:

Pull-ups: 5x5 @BW+30kg (Hard, 4 reps only on last set). I feel weak on this motion - I suspect the rest of you could make some serious gains here? My 2RM max is BW+43kg (120kg total). However my biggest weakness is campus - don't think I've ever managed 136. I don't intend in ever trying again though, as campus sessions just ruin my elbows.

DL: 105kg x5 reps x3 sets (Fat gripz; HARD - made me feel wibbly and needed a sit down between sets)

I was supposed to do some more exercises, but by then my guts were churning like mad and I quit in favour of doing nothing for the rest of the evening.

W – Board. Lots of goes on the 7B+ I came close to flashing last time, but high-point was same point as the flash go. Tried some other hard problems and have isolated a definite weakness in generating momentum out of a bunched position (though a bit of core fatigue from deadlifts yesterday could also be to blame?) Warmed down with half-a-dozen 6B+ to 7A benchmark flashes.

T – 45min yoga. Lots of hip flexor stretches.

F – Board again as weekend plans precluded climbing ‘til Monday. Good session: Felt much more snappy than Wednesday. Sorted the 7B+ from before (Mellow Yellow) and then did another for good measure; Boogiewoogie https://www.instagram.com/p/CEecrgED7xk/  Use of heels on the board generated a few outraged PMs :-o Also worked moves on a 7C+ (Just Training; all but one move done in isolation) and managed a few other problems: I even got close to my nemesis jumpy 7A.

S – Bonus few hours free, but feeling last nights board session, so went out and rebolted a local 7c at Devil’s Gorge. https://www.instagram.com/p/CEeX9Y7Dhgs/ Obviously looked at another couple of lines whilst I was there The first one was death-on-a-pokey-stick (8x10ft sheet of hollow sounding rock) but second has potential, though there’s a chunk at the bottom that looks blank. Dug out some quarrying shot holes and found the original clay and sawdust mix from blasting – might be nitro-cellulose?!?!

S – Pregnant wife continues to amaze me; 37miles coastal cycling, including a lap of the Great Orme.

BHM – Shoulders and thumbs knackered from holding drill/hammer/handlebars from previous 2 days. Brief warm-up in Cave of Justice. Despite feeling a bit broken, most importantly I managed to burn Gareth off. Castel y Gwynt: Nouvelle Cuisine (7c) It felt greasy and it’s a sandbag at 7b+. Dogged and ran away.  Dog, dog, RP on When the Lyon Sleeps (7c). Thin, sharp boulder crux; tamed by PyB Dave turning up and pointing out the foot hold I wasn’t using. Excellent day out – much banter and heckling with old uni friends.

Are those pull ups on a bar or an edge? 

Neither - top of the lattice board. 40mm rounded hold - not really a jug/bar but much better than an edge. 

Good info Ally, cheers. 
 

I am expecting some pull up work from lattice then....

Hi all. Some great weeks from everyone -top work.

Thanks for keeping up a strong stat game, Matt.

Good week for climbing, poor week for training -just the way it should be!

Week 35:

M: Climbing at Craig y Forwyn. Still felt rough, but figured it's better to be poorly in a nice place than at home on the sofa! Pootled up a couple of VSs and followed my mate up some really nice HVSs.

T: Rest.

W: Max strength session: fingerboard, pull-ups, TRX.

T: Rest.

F: Rest, I think! 

S: Sport at Llanymynech (highlight was Smack the Juggler (6b+) second go) and trad at Pinfold.

S: Sport at Llanymynech: gutted to fall off just below the chains on The Day of the Triffids (6b) -a bit of a head thing... didn't commit, then got pumped, then committed too late! Then trad at Nesscliffe: chuffed to bits to top-rope Marlene in the Corner (E5 6a) clean on only my second time on the route (an old lockdown goal ticked!)

Week 36:

Really need to get back in to running... two weeks off is going to have ruined my fitness.

2 runs 

1 Core session

1 Strength session

3 Climbing sessions 

2 Prehab sessions

STGs (end Sept):

Max Hangs: 82kg total 

3 sets of my muscular endurance circuit.

3 sets of my core circuit. 

Cheshire Cat, Harmers Arete, Eliminator, Yates Layaway.

Curfew, Grid Iron, The Deep.

Black Wall Direct, Red Square, Digitron.

Cheshire Gritstone Trail

MTGs:

Still TBC

Excellent! Love that you're getting heckled by your kid!

Welcome back! What's on your to-do list for this Scottish season?

Cheers Matt. Indeed, Sanctuary 50k was right around the corner, on Saturday. Only a taper on Tuesday before, so I just report from the race. 

Saturday

For a race in Bavaria, it felt like proper British weather. It rained all day and given that it took me almost 13 hours to complete the 55km with 4500m d+ round, it got a bit cold too. Start at 7:45 am (second group of the day), up to the first of five peaks within an hour which felt quick to me. First navigation issues of many of the day, but all in all no biggie just something to work on. Got bitten by something in the uphill. Starting falling on the downhill a lot and got more careful (= slower) througout the day. Encountered the usual mental anguish but walked it off. A lot of walking. Finished in the dark with a headlamp on, new to me. 

Not sure what the takeaway is here. There was some beauty in the course, some hardship, and I pushed through. I am nowhere near competitive in these races. The most fun part was the easy scrambling up to the first peak. Probably shorter races in that direction would be a good goal for the future, I wonder whether they let me into Pinnacle Ridge Extreme. All in all, gave me good perspective on what it means to be out >10h pushing. 

Now some recovery and some actual climbing. Have a good week all 

Hah - well that depends on many things, if all goes well I've never been to Lochnagar so would like to pay it a visit, and I missed out on Taliballan (V 6) last year due to getting lost (!) so I have unfinished business there...

Getting lost ;-p Glad it’s not just me that does that!!
 

Lochnagar is mega. I need to do more in there. I was trying to work out the line of Prince of Darkness when I was on Eagle Ridge a few weeks back... it sounds awesome!

Mon: A but broken after food poisoning at the weekend.
Tues: Rest.
Wedns: Rest.
Thurs: Wall. Decent boulder, lots of the new V2-4 problems.
Fri: Rest.
Sat: Wen Zawn. Poor crag choice, so cold. Did Britomartis but chickened out of my pitch. Couldn't feel my feet and really wanted to be somewhere else. Shame because it's clearly a great route.
Sun: LPT. Took a clipstick to the head early on and spent the rest of the day feeling dizzy and irritable. Not one of the all time great BH weekends...!

Thanks Matt, keep forgetting to post every other week! I didn't do anything much the other week and was away at my parents. Working on building a training plan so will report on that next week. It will involve running, climbing, strength and possibly hang boarding.

STG - Y Fal 2h door to door

MTG - Y Fal 1h 45m door to door

LTG - Y Fal 1h 30m door to door

Weight - 15st 1lbs

M - S - Rest

Lost some weight, not sure how tho.  Tiring week for various reasons.  Got a load of bits and bobs around the house, but a mix of low energy, low motivation and the changing weather meant I couldn't quite get out into the hills.